26 March, 2005

It appears that I - like the Korean government and media - am also of the opinion that "that horse is not dead yet." I mentioned the ever-exploding issue of the Dokdo Islands ("Takeshima" in Japan) a few days ago, but for your edification, here's a helpful geographic breakdown of the argument:

As I said, Korea already controls the islands - and have for sixty years - and probably has the legal rights to keep them, but the government is evidently worried that Japan is planning to take the issue to court in an effort to regain control of the islands, which sit in prime fishing waters and may or may not have natural gas deposits. Koreans are worried that Japan, as one of the more influential countries in the world, will play dirty to get the islands (use their connections, fake documents, etc.). Whatever happens, I can see why Korea wouldn't want to take this to the United Nations: Japan has nothing to lose, while Korea could potentially lose the islands.

In the meantime, Korea's not taking any chances:

Those jets - seen flying over one of the rocks - were scrambled along with Coast Guard ships because some right-wing Japanese group decided to try to land on the islands in a small dinghy. Seems like a bit of an overreaction to me. How much did it cost Korea to fly those jets around for a couple hours, just to make a show of force Why not just send the police, who are stationed on Dokdo, out to arrest the 'invaders?'

I encourage you to check out The Marmot's Hole for much better and more in depth coverage on this issue. For my part, I'm thinking of claiming Dokdo/Takeshima for myself, just to put an end to the constant arguing.